1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera apparatus, and more particularly to a camera apparatus which is suitably used as an on-board camera mounted to a vehicle for the purpose of enhancing convenience and safety of an automobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, a camera apparatus mounted to a vehicle main body for carrying out visual contact by using a monitoring device installed in the vicinity of a cockpit has been provided for the purpose of enhancing convenience and safety of an automobile. This sort of camera apparatus includes an approximately rectangular housing having an image capturing lens and an image pickup element incorporated therein. Also, the housing is either built in or attached to a rear door, a side mirror, a front spoiler, or the like of a vehicle main body so that the image capturing lens is made to face the outside. In accordance with such a camera apparatus, an image of the circumference of a vehicle becoming a blind angle for a driver can be displayed, and thus the safety and the convenience can be enhanced.
Now, it is difficult to make this sort of camera apparatus to be harmony with a design for an exterior appearance of an automobile in many cases. Thus, it is desirable that this sort of camera apparatus is inconspicuous in terms of the exterior appearance as much as possible. In addition, when the housing is largely exposed to the outside, the danger that the housing comes in contact with the outside in a phase of car wash, in a phase of opening/closing of a door, in a phase of travel motion, or in a phase of parking increases. This is not preferable in terms of prevention of breakage, and prevention of contamination of the image capturing lens. For this reason, the camera apparatus is required to be further miniaturized.
Here, in general, the camera apparatus used as the on-board camera includes the housing and a substrate. In this case, the housing is formed into an approximately rectangular shape, and an image capturing lens block is either fitted to or fixed integrally with the housing. An image pickup element such as a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) is mounted to the substrate. Also, the substrate is fixed within the housing so that the image pickup element and the image capturing lens face each other, thereby forming the camera apparatus. The housing is composed of an upper half and a lower half. After the substrate is fixed to the inside of one half having the image capturing lens, one half is coupled to the other half. The fixing of the substrate to one half is carried out by using an adhesive agent or screws. The focusing adjustment for the lens is precisely required as the image pickup element mounted to the substrate has a larger number of pixels. Thus, after completion of the focusing adjustment, the substrate is fixed to one half by using fixing means such as the adhesive agent or the screws.
For the purpose of holding a positional relationship between the image capturing lens and the image pickup element, the considerable strength is required for the fixing of the substrate to one half. In particular, the camera apparatus used as the on-board camera needs to have a resistance property against a shock in the phase of the opening/closing of the door, and in the phase of the travel motion. In addition, the automobile is exposed to all temperature environments from a high-temperature environment to a low-temperature environment, and thus the on-board camera is also exposed to the high-temperature environment together with a vehicle interior and a body. Under such a high-temperature environment, it is necessary for the on-board camera to maintain an adhesion force of the substrate to one half.
For more information, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2007-225991.